Recent Purchases – The Great War

Left to right - back row: Table Top Flights 1/200 and 1/144; front row: Paint and Glue and The Miniatures Marketplace, both 1/285

Another batch of new planes – make that two batches of planes – are for the same project, but in two scales (now THAT is crazy). Admittedly I ordered these to compare quality and the like for 1/200 and 1/285 Great War planes, focusing initially on the last dogfight of Werner Voss, a scenario I hope will be the most accurate representation based on all reading and researching I have compiled on the subject. As the vast majority of my Check Your 6! collection is in 1/285 scale (with some jets and bombers in 1/300), I really wanted to do the Great War in the same scale, but offerings are somewhat limited. There are the C-in-C castings, which are crisp and nicely detailed metal miniatures, but the price point on these are not grand (mostly due to shipping costs from the Great White North) and the range is very small. I have collected some, but the thought of trying to assemble these miniature model kits is a bit daunting. After some futile searching I did find Paint and Glue, which offers a large selection of Great War planes in 1/300 scale. While I believe their range was more intended for the Wings of Glory crowd (1/144), the fact I can source these in the smaller scale works well for me. Now, they are located in Old Blighty, but my order, while it took a little time to receive (they print on order then there is shipping time to the U. S.), was actually not bad on shipping costs. And their price per plane is very competitive – the Fokker Dr.I comes in at $2.98. It did take about two months to receive the order, but customs and other international shipping issues were the culprit.

The Paint and Glue planes are perfectly scaled, which actually might create a bit of an issue - the thin surfaces are easy to snap, which I did on the tailplane of one of the Fokker Dr.Is while doing a little cleaning (luckily I had a couple of extra planes in my order, including a Dr.I). I also picked up S.E.5as, a Pfalz D.III, and a couple of Albatros D.Vs.

Paint and Glue - clean, but fragile

A gaggle of planes, mostly Paint and Glue

Now, at the same time, just in case the print quality of Paint and Glue wasn’t what I hoped, I placed an order for the same planes from Table Top Flights. Readers of this blog will know that I have extolled the virtues of TTF in the past – great service, huge range of planes, and good price points. But Mike at TTF is hesitant to offer Great War planes in my preferred scale due to concerns of fragility and I can understand that. I have, for example, his CR.32s in 1/285 and one certainly needs to be careful with fixed gear biplanes. To that end, I ordered the next best thing, 1/200 scale, from Mike. I knew what these would be like, having ordered this scale from him before, and so when the order arrived it was “ho-hum, another great order from TTF.” Joking aside, these are excellent planes – crisply printed and nicely detailed. The price point is $4.00 for a fighter. Being larger, and printed with perhaps a slightly higher quality of material, these are rather sturdy, but one still need to handle with care.

The chunky but sturdy Fokker from TMM

Part of my first order from The Miniatures Marketplace included a 1/285 scale Fokker Dr.I. TMM have a very limited Great War listing, but I did want to grab the triplane to see how it would look and compare to the Paint and Glue version. It isn’t bad at all, the wings are a tad thick but that is necessary as the plane would snap otherwise. Cost was $3.32. TMM has strange prices – some smaller planes are decently priced, while similarly sized contemporaries are not, and bombers are ridiculous as compared to Paint and Glue and the 1/200 scaled Table Top range. However, TMM is a place to find some odd planes, and the more one purchases a larger a discount is given.

Now I have some decisions to make - and the proverbial straw might be decal availability. There is a decent selection in 1/285 (1/300) scale, but 1/200 is a bit of a desert wasteland when it comes to Great War decals, even more so when it comes to specific squadrons. I will create another post about what I have been able to find in both 1/285 and 1/200.

Service!

Recently there was a tad of a hullaballoo on the Check Your 6! discussion group regarding metal vs. resin planes, to which I had made a lengthy response, mostly pointing out to someone who apparently did not like my choosing of 3D prints over metal as some sort of sin. In my response I had mentioned that I had a recent issue with some early model Raiden P-38s that I had purchased from I-94 - some of the booms being rather twisted and really unable to be twisted back into place due to the brittleness of the metal - I needed the Lightnings for my Operation Vengeance project, and Raiden happens to be the only mainstream maker of an early model. I had also mentioned in my post that I did not reach out to I-94 because I have had "favors" from Dave in the past and I did not want to complain. Dave reached out to me and offered to make things right, and gave me some great insight as to some of my mistaken comments in my post about mold wear and such. 

Today I received a pair of replacement Lightnings and once again I-94 shows why their service has always been top notch. Not only did Dave set me up with perfectly cast miniatures, but he also sent a second decal sheet from the Genda's Blade pack that others had mentioned having some issues with (I have the Genda's Blade pack, but have yet to try the decals from the set). Dave did not have to do that, but he did. That says even more about his business practices and he wanted to ensure that in case I had an issue with the first set of decals that I had a second set at hand.

My go to choice for planes will always be the 3D prints - they are scaled so nicely with fine details and usually good price points. They also are lighter and less prone to tipping. But my go to choice for rules and scenario books will always be I-94.

Adding the Morko Morane

Within the Check Your 6! rules are ratings for both the French and the Finnish versions of the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406. Realistically there should be at least one more version, the Klimov engined Mörkö Moraani. I do not believe the Finland listing for the M.S.406 is representative of the Mörkö, but is a slight modification the Finns did to their M.S.406s, which moved the 406 model more towards the 410, by adding two additional wing guns and a simpler and more streamlined radiator. These changes are not reflected in the rules - both the French and Finnish listings have the same ratings, other than a reduced climb rate for the Finnish model. However, the Mörkö, featuring the more powerful Soviet engine, saw markedly improved performance from a speed and climb rate perspective. Granted, the use of the Moraani was rather limited, mostly a late war plane, but this "Frankenstein" is still an interesting and an ugly cool looking aircraft, albeit slightly better looking than the original. Starting in the summer of 1944, the Moraani saw service with Lentolaivue 28, with one pilot scoring three victories using the Mörkö.

Here are the stats for the existing planes, as well as my version of the Mörkö Moraani.

Just who makes the M.S.406 and the Mörkö? My "big three" choices, when it comes to 1/285 scale, are Flight Deck Decals, Raiden Miniatures (I-94 Enterprises), and Table Top Flights. All three offer the standard M.S.406, while Flight Deck and Table Top have the specific Finnish Mörkö. So if you are looking for something different, consider the Frankenstein of the M.S. series.

Image from Flight Deck Decals website